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Monday, January 24, 2011

Some of you know that my friend Laura likes to do yoga. She does yoga a lot, but there is not enough space to do it in our room, so she does it in the living room. Which means I have to get off my nice comfy bed and go into another room where my only bed is a folded-up towel.

Now, you all know that I like to be helpful, and I especially like helping my friend Laura. But I am having a hard time figuring out how I can help her with her yoga.

At first I thought I could help Laura do her balance poses. Those poses look pretty difficult, if you ask me. Laura has to twist her whole body up into these crazy pretzel shapes and do it all while standing on only one leg! So I figured I would stand beside her during balances, so she could lean on me.

Laura didn't get the hint, however. She kept trying to balance on her own, without my help. So I stood closer, right up against her leg, so she couldn't fail to notice that I was there for her.

Then Laura fell over.

She said, "Princess Kendal, I love you, but you're not being very helpful."

Okay. So she doesn't want help with balancing. But maybe I could help by keeping her company while she does her sun salutations.

That didn't turn out to be such a great idea, though. Laura moves around a lot during sun salutations, and sometimes she would kick me.

I don't like being kicked, so I decided to stay out of Laura's way until she gets to the lying-down poses.

Laura does these abdominal-strengthening poses right in the middle of her workout which look really hard. Sometimes she does this funny, heavy breathing with them, and sometimes she screws her face up in concentration.

Those poses look pretty intense and not much fun at all. And it's important to have fun. So I decided to tickle Laura to make her laugh.

I tickled her right in her arm pits.

And Laura did laugh.

But she said I wasn't being very helpful.

*SIGH*

What is a Princess to do? I really, really wanted to help, but Laura wasn't leaving me with any options. Then I hit upon the perfect thing!

Laura is very busy. She has a lot of stuff that she has to get done every day. And all of that stuff takes time. (Some days Laura doesn't even have time to come outside and play with me because she is so busy!) One of the things that Laura does that takes time is her yoga. Another thing is that, after she does yoga, she has to have a bath.

Well, clearly Laura doesn't want me to help her with her balance work, and she doesn't want me to help her with her abdominal work, and it's too dangerous to help her with her sun salutations. But at the end of every workout, Laura lies down on her yoga mat for almost ten minutes. She just lies there, quiet and still, not doing anything.

It seemed to me that that time could be put to better use. So I figured I could help Laura by giving her a bath while she is meditating. Then she wouldn't need to have a bath afterwards, so I would be helping by saving her a lot of time.

I tried to give Laura a very good bath. I licked her arms and her legs and her fingers and her toes. I tried to lick off all the salt and make sure she was nice and clean by the time she was done meditating. But after she had rolled up her mat, Laura still went and had another bath!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Yes, it's me, Princess Kendal. Back like a bad penny, I guess you could say--except that I'm good and priceless and everybody is always happy to see me! Anyhow... I know it's been a long, long time since I have written to you all. I would blame Laura and say that she has been hogging the computer all year (and then, when she was not on the computer, she was outside gardening and so not available to help me), but Princess's should take responsibility for their own behaviour. So I am sorry for the long absence and I promise to try harder to persuade Laura to help me with my blog this year.

So, what is new since the last time I wrote to you? Lots of things! For instance: last Sunday I became thirteen years old! Laura says thirteen is a very good age for a princess, and I agree with her. Now that I am thirteen, Laura has to give me more food, because my investigations in the yard have become very involved and I have been burning more calories doing all of that work. Plus, now that I am thirteen, my friends on Catherine Street gave me some special pink candies, and I get to eat one every Wednesday night. They are very yummy and they help me to have a nice sleep in a dry bed.

Speaking of beds: I had to change my day bed recently.

You know how much I love my special spot under the kitchen table, where I was keeping my own bed. That used to be a very good spot for helping Laura. But then she stopped working in the kitchen. She moved her computer into this other room. And how could I continue to protect her and supervise her writing if I couldn't even see her? So I have to use this big, poofy futon as my day bed now. Sometimes, when you are a princess, you have to make sacrifices for the sake of your subjects.

What else? Oh, yes! We had a big party on Saturday to celebrate my birthday. I was confused as to why everyone came on Saturday, when my birthday was on Sunday this year, but Laura said that was just the way it had to be. Sometimes humans are funny about these things. Anyhow, it was good to see some of my friends (even if none of them brought me cookies).

I will say goodbye for now, because Laura wants the computer back, and I need to go outside soon and make sure everything is in order in my yard. (We have a lot of rabbits out there this year, and you know how much trouble rabbits can get into.) I have lots more stories to tell you, though, so I will be sure to make sure Laura makes more time to help me work on my blog this year.